The Italian Serie A for the 2024/25 season kicks off with a fixture between the Serie A winner for 2023/24 season Inter Milan and Genoa, who finished at the top of the bottom half of the table last season. With new motivation and purpose, the season gets underway at Stadio Luigi Ferraris (Genoa) on Saturday, 2024.

As the new season gets underway with this fixture, it serves as a test for both teams from both ends. For Inter Milan, to see how prepared they are to have a very strong outing as the defending champions and for Genoa to see how prepared they are to take up the new challenge they will have to face off this season with new and renewed motivation. During the pre-season matches, many teams perform at a high level, and some others maintain that the results do not matter, but gaining fitness is important and experimenting with new strategies and ideas. With this match at hand, though no longer a pre-season match, it offers an opportunity to experiment with these ideas again in a different setting to see how well they are suited for the competitions. It will also lend a voice to a need for transfer if need be it.

Inter Milan finished last season in such a loud version, beating off competition and pressure from Juventus, thanks to the own goal from Gatti on the 4th of February 2024 to give Inter the lead, a loss Juventus never recovered from. Inter Milan went ahead to win the league with 94points while conceding 22goals and scoring 89goals across the 38league games and ending the season with 67goal difference. For the whole of last season, they lost 2matches, drew 7matches, and won 29matches. They have one of the best defenses in the competition and managed to keep a clean sheet 20times in the competition last season. The back three of Bastoni, Acerbi and Pavard, which was one of the frequently used back three, was a huge success last season. Lautaro Martinez has, over the years, continued to be a very big asset to the club. He played a total of 44games last season for Inter Milan, and he scored 27times with 7assists. In the Italian Serie A, he played 33matches, scored 24 goals, and 6assists to give a tally of 30goal contribution for Inter Milan in the Serie A last season. He finished last season as Serie A top scorer. A lot will be expected of him by Inzaghi and the rest of the coaching staff and his teammates as well. With the heights he achieved last season, he will easily be a spotlight for Inter Milan to use it to their advantage as this can give other teams the opportunity to run and take a shot. Inter Milan had an outstanding pre-season where they won three of their five pre-season matches, drawing one and losing one as well. They scored 9goals and conceded 6goals. They failed to score only in one of their pre-season matches. This goes a long way to spell out how attack minded this team has become and scoring goals is not a problem for them at least in recent time and breaking down their defense is one of the hardest to do. They will be going into the new season with renewed vigour to better whatever they were able to achieve last season. With new additions to this team, a lot more is expected, and high standard performance is expected from the new signings to prove themselves worthy of playing for the defending champions of Italy. The addition of the central midfielders Piotr Zielenski on free transfer and Davide Frattesi, left midfielder Carlos Augusto, goalkeeper Josep Martinez, center forwards Arnautovic and Taremi is all geared towards deepening the squad, adding fresh legs and quality to the team as they look forward to clinching their 21st Italian Serie A championship.

Genoa, who finished the league last season in the 11th position with 49points after 38league games. They managed 0goal difference as they conceded 45goals as much as they scored 45 goals, too. They will be hoping to massively top up their game this season, score goals, and defend well. Starting the league match with the best in the league for now will goal a long well to evaluate their preparations for the new season so far. This match also will have to show them how far they have prepared and if need be it to prepare more be it having to get new legs to join the team and boast their performance. However, they have so far in the ongoing transfer window that secured the signature of Vitinha, center forward from League 1 side Marseille. The Portuguese international, young and vibrant, has shown a lot of talent and can help them solve their problem upfront. The 24-year-old signed a four year contract with the Italian side until 2028. They have also secured the signature of Koni De Winter. The central defender from Juventus has signed until 2028. The 22-year-old Belgium international has a lot to offer to this team both his youthfulness and versatility as he can play as right back, right center back, left center back, and a defensive midfielder. Despite Koni’s versatility, they went on to secure the services of a defensive midfielder Emil Bohinen and a right back Alessandro Zanoli. They also signed central midfielder Morten Thorsby and a goalkeeper, Pierluigi Gollini. All these additions are just aimed at getting the best version of this team and being ready for the new season.

Both teams have met themselves a total of 35times. They first met themselves for the first time in 1989, which ended in favour of Inter Milan in a match that ended 1-0. The two times they met themselves last season, Genoa proved to be a very powerful opponent as they ranked among the few clubs that had to share a point with Inter last season as their first let ended 1-1 though the second one went in favor of Inter. However, Inter Milan has had a better part of this tie as they have won 23 of that tie drawing only seven while Genoa won only five. Be that as it may, Inter is still advised to be at their best if they want to win Genoa as they will be meeting a better version of the team they met last season and bearing in mind they could not win this team in the first leg, they are to work hard so as not to be slowed down by Genoa as they Inter would like to start up their season on a high tempo.

Will the Italian Serie A defending champions kick off the season with a win? Can they go pass this team this time around in this new season? Do not miss this mouthwatering encounter as struggles will be between the 9times Italian Serie A champions and 20 times Serie A champions.

Best Tip: Inter Milan win or draw under 4.5 goals

Correct Score: 0-1